Former British Olympic athletics coach José Vicente Leiva-Modahl has appeared in court after being accused of sexual offenses against minors.
Leiva-Modahl, 65, husband of former Olympic middle-distance runner Diane Modahl, faces 19 separate charges including sexual assault of a child, rape and controlling and coercive behavior.
Leiva-Modahl, also known as Vicente Modahl, appeared from custody at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday for a 15-minute hearing at which no plea was given.
District Judge Richard Jepson sent the case to Manchester Crown Court and told Leiva-Modahl that some of the allegations were too serious to be dealt with at the magistrates’ court.
Leiva-Modahl was granted conditional bail ahead of a trial preparation and plea hearing on November 18.
Among his bail conditions were residing at an address in the Warrington area, complying with a curfew with electronic monitoring from 9pm to 7am and not contacting witnesses in the case.
He was also ordered to surrender his Spanish passport and not have any unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 years of age.
Leiva-Modahl has been suspended by UK Athletics’ governing body, the court also heard.